Feliway for Cats: A Pet Parent’s Guide

Feliway is a safe, effective and natural way to improve problem behavior and help your cat to cope with changes such as moving house and introducing new pets.

What is Feliway and how it can benefit your cat?

Cats are very susceptible to pheromones, let’s face it they use them all the time to make their environment smell more cat-friendly. Every time your cat scratches on something, rubs his face somewhere or urinates to mark, he is using his ‘smell brain’ to map out his home.

Changes are hard to deal with for your feline  

In many cases where cats become unhappy or hard to live with, they are simply working out strategies to cope with the constantly changing environment they live in. 

Situations that are often out of their control and cause them to act in often peculiar ways. Changes such as a new baby, routine changes, a house move, new furniture, and other cats can be severely distressing. Some cats, like people, internalize their anxieties, while others will wear their hearts on their paws and tell you all about how they feel.

Diffuser or spray 

Feliway comes as a plug-in diffuser with a replaceable refill or a non-aerosol hand-held spray. The diffuser constantly releases a pheromone that can’t be detected by our human noses, but that is comforting to cats. It works in a similar way to an air freshener and simply plugs into a regular power socket. For anxious cats, moving home or situations where you are introducing a new pet or human to the household, the diffuser would be more useful.

The hand-held spray is useful to treat specific places such as a cat carrier or areas your cat is urine marking or scratching. For travel or urine marking where a hand-held spray would be useful. 

How does Feliway work?

Feliway makes your home, that dreaded cat carrier or your new house smell comforting and safe. It is formulated from an analog of the feline facial pheromone, which cats place on things by rubbing their faces on furniture (or people!).

As mentioned previously, cats are not particularly good at change. They like routine and predictability. Unfortunately, life is not always like this. Situations that are often out of your cat’s control can often cause anxiety, leading to behavioral problems. Your cat may scratch on furniture, urinate somewhere, vocalise, be reluctant to eat, overgroom or simply go and hide to avoid everything.

Feliway is one way to get your cat out from under the bed and feeling a little happier again!

When should you use Feliway?

Feliway is very effective for easing stress in felines. 

Stressed cats may: 

• Overgroom
• Yowl
• Pace
• Urinate outside of the litter tray
• Show aggression
• Hide more often
• May overeat 
• Lose their appetite and under-eat
• They may also lose the ability to play or may be unable to get their regular 16-18 hours of sleep a day.

How to use Feliway 

Place in main part of house 

We suggest placing the Feliway Diffuser Set in a powerpoint in the main part of your house, or where your cat spends most of his time. If you are moving, place the diffuser in the new house 24 hours before you move your cat in. It would be ideal to have a separate room for your cat to feel safe in when you first move in, with the Feliway plugged in.

Spray in carrier for travel 

For trips to the vet, spray Feliway Spray into the cat carrier just before travel.

Spray on urine accident spot 

For urine marking, after cleaning with an enzymatic cleaner, spray Feliway in that particular spot to deter repeated ‘accidents’. For more information on solving problems involving cats urinating outside of the litter tray, visit our post on litter box training.

Where can you buy Feliway?

Feliway is available in online stores such as Amazon or vet clinics.

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